Potomac Heritage Trail 50km

Report

by Kerry Owens, Race Director

After three solid
days of driving rain, the skies began to lighten a little for the
start of the PH50k. The day began with a light rain, but within a
few hours became a beautiful seasonal day. Despite the record rains,
the trail conditions were decent and the course markings hung onto
the trees. However, the creeks swelled and rushed to a level that
made crossing prohibitive. Quick action from aid station volunteers
and Ed Demoney resulted in clever re-routing that enabled forty eight
runners to complete the entire distance. Twenty four others
completed lesser distances.

As has become
tradition at the PH50K, bonus points were awarded for completion of
various tasks. These tasks included apple bobbing, consumption of
“black magic”, and ring tossing. Since quite a few women
were spotted wearing mardi-gras beads, it is apparent that some other
bonus points were disguised as ring-tossing points.

Mike Bur scored a
record number of bonus points—28. However, in order to obtain
28 minutes off his time, Mike Bur spent 90 minutes in the aid
stations obtaining these points. Mark Crisman was more efficient,
managing to accumulate 25 bonus points and still finish the course in
5:54. His bonus points gave him the net time of 5:29.

CJ Blagg is this
year’s victor, with a fine time of 4:48, which is the men’s
course record. Congratulations CJ! (The overall course record is
Justine Morrison’s 4:33 achieved with no bonus points). The
women’s winner this year was Michele Harmon, with a time of
5:03. The early leader, Mike Schuster, proved to be a rabbit, who
never had any intention of completing the full distance. After
building up a lead, he stopped to bob for apples to allow others to
catch up and continue the chase.

With the weather
taking a turn for the worse in the days before the run, we expected a
poor turnout. However, of the 88 people who were signed up, 73
showed up in some capacity. We give them credit for the ½
mile trek from their cars to the party. Various excuses, such as
injury, pregnancy, laziness, and fear of rain were mentioned. You
know who you are! Caroline and Walker Williams were particularly
late to the start and used this as an excuse. Walker was in such a
hurry to get to the PH50k, that he “accidentally” left
Caroline at a rest stop in South Carolina on the way to the run.
Since she left her cell phone in the car, there was quite a delay
before she was able to convince Walker to come back and get her.

Big huge thanks to
these folks who really made the day great for everyone and also make
it possible for me to contemplate doing this again!

Results

Note: First number is the time returned by the precise VHTRC timing clock. The second number eflects the bonus minutes that were deducted from the time. For distances shorter than 50km, the third number is the distance.